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from the is-apple-just-too-late-to-the-party dept.
About one in 10 U.S. owners of an iPhone or other iOS device are currently using Apple Music, the Cupertino, Calif. company's streaming service, according to a survey conducted by MusicWatch.
But nearly half of those who have tried Apple Music -- which offers a free three-month trial -- have stopped using it, said MusicWatch, a research firm based in Huntington, N.Y. that specializes in the music industry.
Apple disputed MusicWatch's numbers. According to a company spokesman Thursday, 79% of the those worldwide who have signed up for Apple Music's trial continue to use the service.
Earlier this week, MusicWatch, citing the results of a survey it conducted this month of 5,000 U.S. consumers, contended that just 11% of all domestic iOS users were now using Apple Music.
"Actually, I was surprised, given all the run-up to Apple Music," said Russ Crupnick, a managing partner at MusicWatch, in an interview. "I thought the [11%] would be higher."
So did Jan Dawson, chief analyst at Jackdaw Research, who last week parsed Apple's Aug. 3 claim that globally it had signed up 11 million customers to Apple Music since the June 30 debut. "Eleven million is only about 2% of [the 500 million iPhone users worldwide], which makes for a tiny conversion rate," Dawson wrote in a piece published on Tech.pinions (subscription required).
Both Crupnick and Dawson were nonplussed by the low number, whether the 11% using Apple Music in the U.S. (Crupnick) or the 11 million Apple touted worldwide (Dawson). After all, the service doesn't cost users a dime until their three-month free ride ends. "It's a free, low-risk endeavor," said Dawson in an interview today. "Yet they have this very, very small number who have bothered to try it out."
Crupnick and Dawson each cast for reasons why fewer iOS owners -- the prime audience, although Apple Music can also be accessed by Mac and Windows users -- than expected had taken to the service. One possibility, both said, is that interest in music streaming had been grossly overestimated.
"This whole concept is relatively new to most people [in the U.S.], and is still getting traction," said Crupnick.
"Is this an indication that the market for streaming is very, very small, that it's not much bigger than Spotify has signed up?" asked Dawson, who pegged Spotify's global paid subscription base at 20 million.
Or is it because of the way that Apple presented the service?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Monday August 24 2015, @11:28AM
"you can get all that crap on youtube already."
According to my daughter and her grade school friends, the official ipad music app is youtube. For the younger-than-millenials (say, less than 10 yrs old) this is the only source of music. Older people know about the pay services and mp3 files and cds and older stuff, but for her the only source is youtube.
Every time I play a song for her on my phone, I shut off the phone, put the phone face down, and get surprised the music stops in a second or two, which is an annoying part of using youtube. Also the bandwidth of video is huge if all we're doing is listening to the music.
Some of the play stats for youtube music are surprisingly high.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Monday August 24 2015, @07:00PM
It seems to me that youtube is now autoplaying "next". At least, if I watch some video in the garage and then leave before it ends, and come back later, I find youtube still going, playing whatever it thinks it ought to play next.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday August 24 2015, @07:28PM
Yes sometimes its hilarious to see where it ends up. Almost a drinking game all by itself.